Carmen Maria Machado is an American short story author, essayist, and critic frequently published in The New Yorker, Granta, Lightspeed Magazine, and other publications. Her story collection Her Body and Other Parties was published in 2017. A finalist for the National Book Award[1] and the Nebula Award for Best Novelette, her stories have been reprinted in Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, Best Horror of the Year,The New Voices of Fantasy, and Best Women's Erotica. Machado lives in Philadelphia with her wife.[2]

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Carmen Maria Machado was raised by her parents in Allentown, an hour north of Philadelphia. Her father was the son of two immigrants, with his own father coming to the United States from Cuba at the age of 18.[3] Machado's grandfather worked in the US Patent Office and met his future wife when she immigrated to the U.S. from Austria after World War II.[3]

Machado earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and has received fellowships and residencies from the Michener-Copernicus Foundation, the Elizabeth George Foundation, the CINTAS Foundation, the Speculative Literature Foundation, the University of Iowa, the Yaddo Corporation, Hedgebrook, and the Millay Colony for the Arts.[2] Machado also attended the Clarion Workshop where she studied under authors such as Ted Chiang.[4]

Her story collection Her Body and Other Parties was published by Graywolf Press in 2017. It was a 2017 finalist for the National Book Award for fiction.[1] It won the 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award John Leonard Prize.[9] The collection has been optioned by FX and a television show is in development by Gina Welch.[10]